Riverlink Update

Further to the 2 Olympians bought by Riverlink a short time ago, a third has now also been added to the fleet, again coming from well respected operator, EYMS (East Yorkshire Motor Service). Interesting that Riverlink have chosen to go with three different body styles across three different batches that these buses have come from.

The first to come was Northern Counties Palatine 1 bodied Leyland Olympian K573 RRH, my personal favorite of the trio, purely due to the fact that this one is fitted with a Gardner 6LXB! It was a pretty rare combinaiton at this point, so to find one still in such good working order really is a treat. I haven't yet had the chance to sample K573, largely thanks to the rain actually holding off during today, and hence the VRs were allowed out to play, with WTU 467W being used on the main duty today. K573 is also fitted with coach seats, which again looked to be in a tidy state. I shall look forward to having a bash when the weather turns for the worst!

Next arrival was Alexander Royale bodied Volvo Olympian M832 HVC. This one features standard bus seating rather than coach seating seen on the other two acquired from EYMS. This one was new though as a Volvo demonstrator, visiting many operators around the country before settling down with EYMS, so this has got a nice bit of history behind it. 

The latest arrival is Northern Counties Palatine 2 bodied Volvo Olympian, N589 BRH. Again, a very smart and well presented vehicle. 


Interestingly, although the trio appear to be still in EYMS livery, they have infact been re-painted at Plymouth Citybus, but back into the same livery, with a few very minor modifications. Not quite sure why they have decided to move away from their tradition livery of Blue and White, which the VRs and Darts still carry. I would have presumed confusion with First's livery would be unlikely, but that's the only logical reason I can think of, off the top of my head as to why they may have done this. To my knowledge, none of the three Olympians are actually due to be converted to open top format, and hence the VRs look set to remain in frontline service for the foreseeable future, although it does seem slightly strange to have 2 VRs, 2 Darts and 3 Olympians operational, when the 100 only needs 1 bus for its PVR, along with the 100 GOLD and 100 GOLD + services requiring 1 bus each for 2 journeys per day. This leaves 4 buses spare, with 6 available for a majority of the day.  I shouldn't nit pick, its a wonderful fleet, and one of an ever decreasing amount of operators who still strive to keep their VRs running, with more and more each year fading away.